Passion outside work: Acting, directing and writing. Roberto Figueroa II didn't always consider himself the acting type. Figueroa was just a typical high school student in Orange County, N.Y., when he decided to audition for a play his senior year with a friend.

"My hands got all sweaty," he said, from the fear of being on stage. "I was about to do it, and I wimped out."

That was a turning point for Figueroa, who went on to get his college degree from SUNY New Paltz, where he began to come into his own, allowing his true people skills to shine.

"I sort of started feeling more comfortable in my own shoes," he said. "I said, 'This is me, and I enjoy getting to know people.'"

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Figueroa began acting and directing in college and continued professionally after college, ultimately getting spots in commercials for McDonald's and the Olive Garden and landing parts in soap operas.

And to pay the bills, he started his own painting business in Newburgh called Platinum Painting Co., which did both residential and commercial jobs.

"I picked it up very quickly from a business aspect," Figueroa said.

Those experiences are what led Figueroa into college admissions, where his people, marketing and organizational skills have been important assets.

He began at Nyack College, where he helped increase enrollment in its MBA program from just nine students to 49 as associate director of admissions. And most recently, he was at SUNY Orange, where he was assistant director of admissions for three years.

But his aspirations have always been to be an admissions director, and so becoming executive director of admissions at Excelsior College in Albany, one of the country's largest distance learning universities, is a big deal.

"It fits everything I have achieved to this point to get this opportunity," he said.

But raising three kids at home in Orange County does make it difficult to keep up an acting career. And he has another aspiration that has come from his time with his children: "I'm writing a children's book."